In Regards to Galleries and Photos

[davo-man]

In this thread, you guys have said that we aren't allowed to post copyrighted images. I'm a little bit confused by this for a number of reasons:

1) We're allowed to have copyrighted images as our avatars; in fact, in My Settings, users are actually offered a number of them to use as avatars (such as Lord of the Rings characters, landscape images etc). Apart from that the images in the galleries are much larger than the avatars, what difference is there between them?

I do concede that it is in the CoC that avatars are included in the copyright image ban, however it must not be very well enforced when quite a few of the moderators have copyrighted images as their avatars.

2) We're allowed to hotlink to copyrighted images in the public forum, which is very similar to having them in our galleries. The only real difference is that having them in our gallery stores them on your server or the server of the "mother company", which brings me to numero tre:

3) The company that brought you into creation, "The-Site-That-Shall-Not-Be-Named", allows and, some would say, encourages copyrighted images to be put in their users' galleries. I assume (and I may well be wrong) that they own or pay the rent for the servers that EmptyClosets uses, so I'm confused why it's one rule for one site, one rule for the other.

I know I've already brought this up with members of staff, but the topic was ignored and no further discussion had, but since you've mentioned it again, I thought it appropriate to re-open the issue.

[Nitro]

Not to answer the question at all, but rather ask why am I greeted with the following message when attempting to access the linked thread in the opening post:

Nitro, you do not have permission to access this page. This could be due to one of several reasons:

Your user account may not have sufficient privileges to access this page. Are you trying to edit someone else's post, access administrative features or some other privileged system?
If you are trying to post, the administrator may have disabled your account, or it may be awaiting activation.
Log Out Home

[Beachboi92]

i got the same thing only it poped up twice despite clicking once haha

[Techcompu2]

The mentioned thread was the announcement posted recently at the top of each forum page

Speaking of that notification, where in the blazes did it go?
I can't find the thread in question anywhere! Does this mean that the rules have changed again? Or did you already go through all the albums to delete the offending subject matter? Shouldn't the copyright notice remain visible if it's going to be enforced so as to prevent the violation from occuring in the first place?

Colour me confused, folks.

[davo-man]

Hmm, well it's been a week with no answer so I though I'd bring this back into the "New Posts" listing in the hope that a mod would see it again and give me a solid answer on it.

Weee-eell, that and I also have another query in regards to galleries and photos. In this stickied thread from last year, Paul has stated that we can't openly display pics of ourselves and that we must instead link to photos in our galleries. I couldn't find this stipulation in the CoC, so perhaps it has been altered (in which case, it may be advisable to un-sticky that thread), however if that's still enforced, I'm just a bit curious as to what it achieves. I mean, as soon as you join EmptyClosets, you gain access to users' galleries, despite not being able to comment on them. The only protection you are giving by enforcing this is stopping people who haven't joined EC from seeing the pics, but anyone with a valid email address can join, so I see no advantage.

I don't mean to complain or annoy you guys, I just thought you would prefer for these inconsistencies/queries to be sorted out, instead of just being left.

[Martin]

I'm unable to answer this at the moment due to only having limited time here, but I will have to contact somebody higher up to get the rule clarified to me. The copyright deletion is something that has been in place before I became a moderator so I won't know the purposes of its introduction and why it only affects gallery pictures. It's just an action that has been passed down the moderator ranks as the Gallery system has changed and developed over time. I imagine avatars are most likely left due to them not implying ownership in the same way Gallery pictures do. A gallery will display pictures in all their glory and hardly ever have the copyrighters permission, whereas an avatar is 100 x 100 pixels in size and usually comes from a site that specialises in hosting avatars for download and using (whether legally or illegally is not our concern). However, if a copyright holder should request that an avatar is removed then it is done so immedietly and has been done in the past. While people should exercise caution when using any online images, it's not the sites responsibility to go chasing around the copyright of avatars to check whether or not they came from a site which hosts them legally. It's not possible to moderate avatars for copyright issues, and the only way to overcome that would be by disabling them. Gallery pictures are able to be moderated and they are done so to stop EC's valuable server space being flooded because members are using it as a storing site.

As I said, the rule was introduced long before I appeared on the scene so the reason for its introduction and continuation will need to be explained by somebody higher up who was around when it was implemented. As for EC's sister site, that has no business or relevance on here. What you have on this site is what the powers above have approved and/or requested. The owners and lawyers regularly have concerns about copyright, and if they request that avatars are to follow the copyright rules then that is what will happen (not sure how considering there aren't adequate features to do so). For now, the only instructions passed down to myself and the staff is to keep the Gallery clean (so to speak), and that is what we are doing. It's not in our best interest to enforce rules on other areas which may breach copyright, whether it be avatars or threads in Fun and Games. The owners are entitled to request their removal, but nothing will happen with that until they make the first move on it. The rule is there in the CofC should we need to do so, but for now it's only an action we enforce when a copyright holder speaks to us directly or when the owners or their legal team request that we enforce it at the same level as we enforce Gallery pictures. They have yet to do so.

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Oh, and the announcement that some of you have commented on expired after the copyright inspection was completed. It wasn't a notice requesting that members stick to the rule, it was just informing them that their Gallery was going to be checked. There was no need to keep it there once that action was complete so it expired and is no longer accessible.